Lozada files kidnapping charges vs. govt officials

February 22, 2008

A key witness in the aborted national broadband project on Friday filed charges of kidnapping and attempted murder before the Department of Justice against government officials involved in his alleged abduction early this month.

Despite his move, Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada Jr. insisted, his “utmost faith” in the judiciary remains untarnished. He said, though, that he cannot give such trust to “the members” of the executive branch.

Lozada sued Environment Secretary Jose “Lito” Atienza; Director General Avelino Razon Jr., chief of the Philippine National Police; Chief Supt. Romeo Hilomen, head of the Police Security and Protection Office; Senior Supt. Paul Mascariñas, deputy chief of the protection office; retired Brig. Gen. Angel Atutubo, airport security chief; retired Senior Police Officer 4 Rodolfo Valeroso; and several John Does. Valeroso previously was identified in reports as “Roger.”

Lozada’s lawyers said the kidnapping charges stemmed from the incident on February 5, when Lozada was picked up allegedly against his will by government men from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport upon his arrival from Hong Kong. Among these men allegedly were Atutubo and Valeroso.

The respondents, particularly Atienza and Razon, earlier claimed that Lozada had asked for police protection as he was fearing for his life.

Atienza said, “We welcome this legal action. Now, we will be able to prove the scripted role that he [Lozada] plays in the build-up of the scenario [that Lozada had been abducted] … definitely, we welcome it [legal action] because it will give us the opportunity to prove his self-glorified fairytale wrong.”

He added that the suit filed by Lozada “will give us all now who responded to his call for help a chance to ferret out, to come out with, the truth.”

Insisting that Lozada had sought police protection, Atienza said, “If helping a man in need is kidnapping, then I don’t know what charity means.”

Lozada used to be a consultant of Romulo Neri, formerly director general of the National Economic and Development Authority. Lozada often sat as the representative of Neri in discussions on the broadband project. He said he quit as project consultant on January 18, 2007, after being threatened by resigned Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. of the Commission on Elections.

Lozada was the president and chief executive office of the Philippine Forest Corp., PFC or PhilForest, a government-owned and -controlled corporation and a subsidiary of the Natural Resources Development Corporation of the Environment department. The development corporation overseas agro-reforestation projects and taps idle lands for economic productivity. Lozada’s immediate superior was Atienza.

Lozada and Neri had snubbed Friday’s scheduled presentation by the Justice department of the results of its fact-finding investigation of the alleged abduction.

In a letter to Undersecretary Ernesto Pineda, Lozada told the Justice department that its inquiry into the controversial $330-million broadband deal was not allowed by the Rules of Court.

He also cited the alleged prejudice of the Pineda panel, with the probe having been conducted on orders of President Gloria Arroyo for Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez to do so. Lozada had also linked President Arroyo’s husband, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, to alleged brokering for bribes in the broadband deal. Mr. Arroyo’s lawyer, Ruy Rondain, in a statement, said his client flew to Hong Kong on Friday “to seek acupuncture treatment for his chronic back pain.” Rondain added that Mr. Arroyo “will return in a few days for the next hearing at the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with the ZTE cases.” ZTE is ZTE Corp., the Chinese telecommunications giant that won the bid for the broadband project.

In his letter to Pineda, Lozada said, “The [Justice department’s] job is to stop corruption, not whitewash it, by conducting preliminary investigations and filing charges when appropriate, in accordance with the Rules of Court. Conducting ‘fact-finding’ on orders of the President to ‘determine personalities’ is not part of the [department’s] job description.”

He added, “While I have utmost faith in the judicial system, considering my recent experiences I cannot say the same for the members of the executive department.”

Pineda scored the no-shows of Neri and Lozada, saying their testimony at the Justice department was supposed to be their chance to show Filipinos people that “corruption is not good.” He added that they had posted 10 agents from the National Bureau of Investigation to protect Lozada.

Another lawyer, Ernesto Francisco, also on Friday described as “bogus” the fact-finding investigation. He then urged volunteer lawyers to charge and prosecute Gonzalez for authorizing the probe.

Francisco said the Justice secretary and his subordinates face criminal and administrative charges for allegedly violating Article 208 of the Revised Penal Code.

The Pineda panel, he said, violated Section 3 of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (Republic Act 3019) and the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials (Republic Act 6713).

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